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On second thought, I do bleeve it *is an emphatic double negative. The emphatic multiple negative is usually marked by some other nonstandard grammatic device. That is not the case in this example, which is what threw me off. that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it, until something better comes along, anyway
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Anonymous
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speaking of the New Yorker ~
what's up with replacing a dash with the two little dots over the second "e" in words like de-emphasize, re-education, etc? i really like it ~ it is the hip thing to do now? the hyphens seem so stilted.
oh, and what are those little dots called? i know i should know =(
and is this a YART?
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It's called a dieresis and it comes from French. I don't think it's particularly new; more of a stylistic choice.The German version is umlaut but it has a different fuction. I'm sure Faldage will be glad to go to great lengths to explain to you, cara 
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Them little dots are called a diaeresis - and they annoy me no end, as I first noticed them under the editorship of Tina Brown, who also filled the magazine with ads, which did not go away when Ms. Brown did.
So, the diaereses are guilty by association.
edit: Damn, AnnaS beat me by 43 seconds - but I think I spelled it righter 'n she did.
double edit: And my Webster's says it comes from the Greek, via that ol' Latin (it means "to divide" because it's dividing the pronunciation into two syllables), but I'm sure Faldaje will show up soon to tell us all a thing or two about it
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i've only been reading the magazine for about a year ~ but the ads aren't NEARLY as overwhelming as in, say, PC magazine.
why on earth would they bug you? the hyphen always causes a nanosecond of mental pause in me, but enough to stunt the flow of the sentence. surely you wouldn't prefer na-ive?
Anna ~ would you please direct your SO to this thread? umlaut was the word i was [incorrectly, obviously] looking for... so i'd like to be both disabused and edumacated.
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Regarding dieresis vs. diaeresis, either is correct but the former is considered a variant.
The symbol itself is used, in the examples, to indicate that the vowel is pronounced as a separate syllable, as in naļve or Brontė. The term umlaut refers to the linguistic process wherein a back vowel, such as a, o or u is dragged kicking and screaming to the front of the mouth in anticipation of a front vowel lurking there in the next syllable. In German this process is indicated by placing a dieresis over the back vowel.
Aintcha glad ya ast?
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the hyphen always causes a nanosecond of mental pause in me,
OTOH, coworker allus looks to me like someone who orks cows. Gimme co-worker any day.
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Okay, co-worker is one that should get diaeresitized. I just get annoyed with adding them dots to words like "cooperate," which gets along just fine without them.
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In reply to:
diaeresitized
which brings us to another rhetorical cheval de bataille (pmf): epenthesis 
he complains about the addition of a couple of harmless l'il dots, yet he adds entire syllables with reckless abandon
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[white]he adds entire syllables with reckless abandon[/white]
Hey! You saying diaeresitized has more syllables than added a diaeresis to?
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